What the snow took away
by Kaitsumi
Summary: A blizzard has passed through Western Gaia. Godo has been assassinated and Yuffie has run away from her homeland to find the killer. With responsibilities and Wutainese police looking for their heir, Yuffie will seek the help of her friends to get to the bottom of her father's murder. Dealing with her own feelings. [Yuffentine]
1. Preface

_**Hey everyone, I'm Kaitsumi, and this is my new fanfiction for FFVII. I hope you guys like it!**_

_**Disclaimer, Square enix owns all final fantasy characters and places. **_

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**Preface**

Blood dripped in the snow, slowly, carefully expanding inside the white cold winter. My hands trembled as I slowly drew them up, blood slowly trickling through my fingers and making their way towards the floor as the previous ones. My breath got caught up in my throat as the ringing in my ears seemed to stay where it was.

Blood.

_His _blood.

I stood up with shaking feet, something I hadn't experienced in a while, but could care less about it. My chest ached as the cold air crashed against my face and I realized just what was wrong in here. He was dead. _Dead. _He wouldn't come back. The hot tears burning in my eyes were just as painful as the growing fear in the pit of my stomach.

"No." I whispered making clouds in the air. This was wrong, this couldn't be happening, not now, not in this place. My heart drummed slowly against my ears, the events pouring slowly to me like sand in a timer. A tear went down my cheek, my mouth still parted, my hands still bloodied, and just like that I screamed the words I didn't thought I'd ever need to scream.

"Help!" I yelled with my throat barely able to summon the noise. I broke into a run, sprinting through the snow and feeling like I was betraying him by leaving him in the ground. "Help!"

Terror crept in on me. This was wrong! This couldn't be happening! This was surely a dream! And yet there was that voice in my head that always told me what the truth was.

_It's not a dream. _

"Help!" I screamed once again with all of my air, my voice choking up with my emotions as I kept running. I couldn't stop, I knew I was close.

_Just what the hell is going on?_

"Hel-!"

"Miss Kisaragi!" Mao, an old man that I knew worked at my house came to me, a lantern in his hand as he approached me with another man that I knew I knew, but couldn't come up with his name at the moment. The images vivid in my head as I realized I would have to go back with them. "Miss Kisaragi, What's wrong?"

Everything was wrong, this blizzard was wrong, the blood in my clothes and arms was wrong. The shaking of my legs as I tried to keep myself from collapsing to the floor and crying my eyes out was certainly wrong. I tried to breathe out like a normal person, but all that came out was a whimper that was a foreshadow of my future breakdown, because I knew that wasn't too far off.

"Mao…" I blinked through the icy wind and my own tears trying to give him a convincing look, not like that would be necessary coming from me in a state like the one I was in. I swallowed tasting the bitterness of my mouth and the blood I hadn't realized I had smeared on myself when I covered my mouth to muffle out a scream when I first saw him. "Mao, someone killed my dad… Godo is dead."

And that's when I completely lost it, collapsing to the ground and smearing my face with my father's blood as tears ran down.

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_**It's the preface, so it's short, sorry! The chapters to come will be long, I promise!**_

_**I have a question, would you guys liek for me to keep in in Yuffie's POV or to make it third point of view. If you guys have read my other Fanfic "In the darkness of the night" You might notice I change to Tifa's POV which won't be the case here, so I'm wondering if I should make this Third POV?**_

_**Anyhow, thank you for reading! Please review on your thoughts and I'll update as soon as I can!**_


	2. Chapter 1

**_Hey guys, I told you I would update soon, well at least for today, since I really wanted to begin this story. Thank you very much for reading, the next chapter should be up after I update my other story. _**

_**Disclaimer, Square-enix owns all characters and places from Final Fantasy VII**_

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**Chapter 1**

"I just need you to give me something, Yuffie, anything of that night." The man said across the table. He was the father of one of the kids she used to play with when she was little. Head of the Wutainese police department and longtime friend of Godo. She knew him as the old man that would bring tea and sweets to eat in the late afternoon and just before he did the night-shift.

She never thought she'd be seeing him across a questioner table in the police station. With her hands and face still red, red with her father's blood. The mere thought of him in the snow made her skin crawl with shivers and her eyes wet. She bit back the tears. Unable to say anything back to him, just like the past twenty minutes, both of them in the cold metal chairs and under the white light of the small light bulb on top of them. The recording machine resting in the middle of the table.

The room was so gray, it reminded her of the outside where the snow was so strong and yet light enough to blend with the dark night making a perfect gray. Or a blue gray for that matter. The moon had been able to filter enough through the clouds to give a better view.

A better view of the trail of blood.

She shivered, the grotesque memories coming back to her.

"Try to remember." Wren, his name was Wren, and she just seemed to remember at that moment. "Give me something and then we can both leave for the night."

She opened her mouth, maybe to tell him how she had gotten there, or maybe to simply breathe more properly since her lungs seemed to be malfunctioning ever since she saw him. From a total mess she had gone to a total nothing, after Mao had sent the other guy to look for Godo he had taken her to the police station, and somewhere in between that time interval something had snapped inside of her. Something had stopped her tears, and her train of thought altogether.

"That won't make him come back." It was a mere whisper, something anyone's ears would have missed, but not Wren's trained agile ears.

He pitied het, he really did, and Godo had been his good friend for most of his life, so he could understand what she was going through at the moment, but he needed information.

"Miss Kisaragi." Calling her formally made her eyes flicker towards him. Empty stormy eyes that were still red with the tears she had shed an hour or two ago. His watch marked three forty seven in the morning and he knew that his wife would worry about the unstopping snowstorm in the outside. "Anything will help."

Yuffie knew, she knew deep inside that anything could help, but she didn't wanted to help at the moment, she wanted to sleep, she wanted to curl up in a ball in her bed and pretend she hadn't woken up that night. She wanted to think that she would wake up in the morning and kick Godo out of bed yelling at him to wake his lazy ass up and have breakfast with him. She wanted to beat him up in the pagoda and show him who was the boss, and she wanted to drink jasmine tea with him too, just be there in silence with him for some minutes.

"I woke up to drink some water." She finally spoke, the men behind the glass that were watching the every move of the princess and the policeman sighed in relief. They thought the princess might have been too traumatized to even speak. But Yuffie wasn't talking for the sake of the police force, she was talking to herself, she needed to make sure she herself knew what had just happened, and how this would change everything.

"Okay." Wren wrote down her every word in the notepad by his elbow, even when the machine was recording their conversation with every detail.

"I was barefooted and walked to the kitchen, and when I got near the sink I touched something wet in the floor. When I turned on the light I realized someone had dropped a glass of water, and I thought it was surely Godo, which to begin with was weird since you know… he sleeps like a brick." She paused and tried to calm her breathing. She needed to continue, the images coming back to her clearly.

xxxx

_Well, that's weird_.She thought to herself while crouching and touching the cold floor thanks to Godo dropping the water there. Rolling her eyes she took a cloth by the counter and threw it on the floor before wiping it with her foot. It was weird from Godo to wake up in the middle of the night, but it was even weirder that he didn't even bothered to clean up after himself.

"Lazy old man." She said out loud before shivering with the cold that had surrounded the house. They had advised for everyone to stay inside since it would be a pretty nasty blizzard, something that at least let her hoping that it would be pretty enough to make snow angels and make snowmen. She didn't like the cold, but at least she liked being artistic about her least favorite season too.

Sighing she walked towards the poor lit hallway ready to go back to her room when she noticed something else. Godo's bedroom door was wide open, and if there was something the old man was strict about besides her life, then it was his privacy. He always locked his door at night. Frowning Yuffie tiptoed inside of his room, the night too dark in the inside of the palace to actually show her if he was asleep or not, so she went ahead and flipped the switch up. A small gasp escaped her lips when the room was visible and Godo's bed was empty.

_He's probably in the bathroom. _She assured herself as she got closer to his futon on the floor and stepping on it, it was cold; something that was probable with the frigid conditions thanks to the cold front. She turned on her heel and walked out of the room only to remember that she had forgotten to turn the light of the kitchen off. Groaning she walked back to the kitchen and turned off the light before strolling back to her room, but not before noticing that her father wasn't back from his bathroom break.

With her background on spying and secret missions she knew this was more than odd, especially coming from heavy-sleeper Godo.

"Dad?" She called out stepping inside his room again. As soon as the light switch came up she noticed nothing had changed, he was still not in his room, and he was clearly not asleep.

The alarm in the back of her mind was minimal as she thought that maybe he had gone to one of the secret rooms scattered around the house. It was a hobby of his hiding new things that could be useful later on. Deciding to go and check out to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep in the library and catch a cold Yuffie walked to her room and put on her slippers before passing her arms through her dark blue jacket and venturing into the depths of her mansion. She was almost sure he wasn't on the second floor or the basement, so the library was the first place to look for him.

She slid the door open and just as she did a gush of artic wind hit her in the face. The slapping of the paper pages of books and the clattering of the paintings and other decorations in the wall made her question what was happening. The window was wide open, letting not only the minimal moonlight, but also the snow that was piling in the floor. Holding her jacket closer to her she turned on the light and looked around. There was no sign of her father, but the room was completely wrecked, the bookshelves on the floor and their books scattered around. The desk had been thrown and the mat was in the opposite side of the room.

The pile of snow was getting bigger by the second and she approached the window to close it, just to realize something else. Stopping dead on her tracks Yuffie took a small piece of thorn cloth that seemed to have gotten stuck with a nail by the window. Nail that had been there to keep the window closed at all times to begin with. The fine material within her fingertips was so recognizable she could almost remember which Kimono it came from.

"Why would he-?" She began her question but shook her head. Something was wrong in there and she needed to find out what.

Without losing any time she kicked the drawer by the desk managing to crack it without having to find the key for it. Inside laid five four starred shurikens, she could go back to her room for her conformer, but she didn't wanted to waste any time as she climbed out the window and her feet submerged into the snow. The ice biting through her pajama pants as she tried her best to run in a direct path.

"Dad!" She called out again. He surely hadn't gone out for a walk at one forty in the morning, not in that weather, and that small worry inside her mind was getting worse. Of course, she wasn't the type of person that openly admitted she was worried, if anyone asked her at that moment if she was worried she would have laughed and told them she just wanted to make sure he hadn't gotten sick or he would give her hell for the next days to make him feel better so he could 'rule' again.

Keeping her straight line she realized she was walking towards the small pond close to her home, the kids had asked her if they could move the fish to the pond inside her house so they wouldn't die because of the ice, but she had assured them they would be okay because of the insulation. Although she wasn't so sure about it now. Yuffie was getting farther away from her house, and into the grounds that were still property of her family, but completely inhabited. The garden her mother had tended when she was still too young to remember well. The flowers that had died before she could appreciate their beauty.

She stopped for a second when the corner of her eye caught what she thought might be a shadow. It would have been smart of her to have brought a lantern, but everything had happened so quickly she wouldn't have thought about it even if it was nothing at all.

"Godo?" She asked walking towards the shadow that had gotten lost at the beginning of the woods. The harsh wind still beating at her sides as she tried to tighten her jacket and failing at it. Her feet were already numb with the snow entering her slippers. The woods seemed darker that night than any other, but the sky was still deep blue and lit enough to distinguish between a tree and another.

She entered the woods, a shuriken in her hand and the other four inside her pocket in case she actually had to use them. Something she really wished she didn't have to go to. She just hoped her dad was sleepwalking for some reason and that she would only have to drag him back into the house and throw him a bucket of hot water. The shadow moved again and her neck almost snapped this time as she continued to venture the old woods. This time she didn't called for her dad, if he hadn't answered the first time then this shadow was probably not him.

Yuffie came upon a clearing, the moonlight filtering enough to make the snow seem like a pale gray, and upon the gray there were dark dots. She blinked, once, twice, and the dots were not gone. She was sure there was nothing wrong with her eyes so she lowered her hand close enough to touch the snow that almost reached her knees by this point and touched the surface of one of the darker dots. The fluid seemed to stick to her fingers, but run down if she lifted her hand vertically. She swallowed having a good idea of what it was.

Bringing her fingers close to her nose she could decipher what her mind already had as the metallic smell of blood. She cleaned her hand on her jacket, the knot in her stomach increasing as she cleared her throat once again and called out.

"Godo!" She slowly followed the trail of blood that seemed to become more consistent with the steps she took. Some dots became lines and lines became blobs. Her own blood began to quicken as she threw her shrunken into the snow and began jogging, which was very hard with the thick snow in her feet, although this didn't stop her. The snow didn't stop falling and slowly covering the tracks that the blood and her footprints left.

Her breath left clouds in the dark night as she approached the ending of the clearing. The blood didn't stopped, and neither did the woods, there were some inconsistencies in the snow meaning someone had clearly passed through it. The question was who? And were they injured? Could Godo have gone after them… or could he be running away from them?

_Shut up, shut up, shut up... _She chanted to herself as she forced herself to keep running, the pain in her chest growing as she stopped inform of a river that passed through the forest. The trail ended just when the side of the river started, and she decided that if she had gone this far then she might as well not fear pneumonia at the moment. Taking a deep breath she jumped in the rocks that were surfacing and tall enough to not touch the water, but she slipped once and almost fell head first into the freezing knives if it hadn't been for her agile reflexes and had jumped to the other side before falling.

Sure enough the trail began a little after the other side. Yuffie thought she heard something, a branch break, or a rock fall into the creek, but a noise made the hairs in the back of her neck stand as she cautiously took a step forward and began walking again. The trees cleared once again, this one was smaller than the one before, and there was something different.

Her breath stopped in her throat as a shiver bolted down her spine and her feet acted before her mind running towards the body in the middle of the clearing.

She dropped to her knees in front of him, his kimono matching the fabric inside of the rocket. His face buried in the snow. Her heart was beating against her neck like a ticking bomb as her hands trembled while moving his shoulders.

"D-d-dad…" She began while trying to turn him around, though she took her hand away when her fingers met something warm and wet. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked at her hand and was barely able to recognize it in the darkness of the blood. "Dad?!"

Her tone changed from worried to hysterical as she quickly turned him up, her hands getting bloodied as she did this. One of her hands flew to her mouth as she was struck with the image of her father, stabbed clearly several times in the abdomen. The whole front of his kimono shredded. The corner of his mouth still had some blood. She creamed, a noise almost alien to her, the proud single white rose of Wutai, if she ever screamed was to threaten someone, or to give happy news to her friends. This scream was out of sheer terror and helplessness. Her mouth still covered by her own hand as her eyes became filled with tears.

"Y…Yuffie?" Godo's voice was weak, barely audible.

"Dad!" Yuffie coughed his name, unable to talk without breaking her own voice. Godo smiled, he knew she would have come, his daughter was smart; she was his daughter after all.

"I'm sorry…" He could feel his life slipping away, her image becoming blurry with the seconds. "I should have been a better…a better father."

"No, dad, no, you're fine, you're an awesome dad, a-and I'm going to call someone and we're going to get you to the doctor… and I'll even cook you breakfast tomorrow." He lifted his hand and she took it, his was cold as the snow under them, and he was comforted by her warmth.

He chuckled, the air in his lungs barely able to let him do that.

"I'll have to pass this time." He murmured while lifting his other hand, the one that had been bleeding because of the slash. He laid it upon her face, moving his thumb across her cheek and removing a tear that had fallen down. "Be strong, my daughter, I am so proud of you."

He had always been, of course, but he always had to make sure she always strived for the best, he wanted to make sure she was strong enough in case something like this ever happened. He breathed in, his last grasp of air and Yuffie could feel her own heart having a hard time to keep beating.

"Dad… daddy…?" He smiled, the last time he had heard her say that was when she was very young, before he began to be stricter with her, before his wife passed away.

"Don't trust anyone, Yuffie… I love you, my daughter." With that his breath finished, and his hand lost the life she was holding on to. His hand slipped off and fell to the ground just as she tried to process what happened.

She opened her mouth, knowing he couldn't hear her as she said with a shaky voice.

"I love you too, dad."

His eyes were closed and she was still holding his other, cold hand. The tears burning by her eyes were the only thing that kept her warm in those seconds as she looked down at her hands, with Godo's blood slowly trickling down.

"No." She whispered seeing his now dead body… her _father's _dead body. All coherent thought left her, and all she could do at that moment was to get up and scream for someone to help her.

xxxx

Wren stopped writing and looked up. Yuffie Kisaragi, the role model of many girls in Wutai, and maybe even around the Globe sat in front of him, with empty eyes, tears slowly running down her cheeks, her eyes so red and swollen it almost seemed like she had cried for a week and not for two hours. His heart ached for the girl he had seen grown in that mansion, for that young woman who would have to ascend to the throne at twenty. Not even Godo had done that.

"I think we should stop here." He said and her eyes flied to him, she had been lost in thought, remembering everything that had happened.

Yuffie nodded, passing her dirty jacket sleeper across her face smearing the blood that had dried. She needed a hot shower… no, she needed her life from three hours ago back. She needed to go back in time and make sure that nothing would happen. But there was no time machine, and all she could do was wait.

"Right." She agreed as Wren bent over and topped the recording of the tape.

"I'll ask Mao to take you back to your house—"

"No." She interrupted Wren, her gray eyes looked darker, almost older. "I don't want to go back to my house."

She couldn't go back, going back meant seeing his room again, and seeing the study room, the room that would be infested with reporters and camera men.

And they would ask her questions and make her remember again. And she couldn't afford that, she wouldn't afford that. She had questions herself and she needed the answers for them. She knew she should wait, but she wasn't the best waiter out there. She wanted to know why someone would want her father dead, and why someone had actually killed him. Yuffie needed justice, and she knew she would get it eventually with the policemen, but she needed it _now. _

"Can I make a call?" She asked Wren, her voice was monotonous, flat would be a compliment to her voice at the moment.

Wren was afraid for her, for her mental health, for the responsibilities that would come crashing to her out of nowhere.

"Of course, your majesty." He said while getting his phone out and handing it to her. She took it and got up, nodding at him as in thanks before opening the door and stepping in the hallway of the police station. She knew it was around five in the afternoon in Edge, so she wasn't afraid to call.

The phone rang a couple of times before someone picked up.

"Hello?" Tifa's sweet voice answered through the other side. Not everyone knew her cellphone number, well aside from her close friends, so that was probably the reason of the delay answering.

"Tifa-" Yuffie began without even greeting her, or saying a joke as usual.

"Yuffie? Isn't it like three in the morning in W—"

"It's an emergency." Yuffie cut her of feeling like she was about to choke again. She was getting a hold on her feelings better, but the shock was still fresh on her. "I need a ride, to edge, right now."

There was a silence in the other line, a silence that lasted eight seconds as Yuffie had counted them while breathing in and out. After that short pause Tifa came back in the line, her voice as serious as if they were talking about a ticking bomb alert.

"Cid is on his way." She assured Yuffie. The later one smiled, not as her normal self, but still happy that she had her friends. She sniffed, a sound that made Tifa's heart break. "Yuffie, what's wrong?"

"I can't explain right now." The ninja said regaining her composure. "Thank you, Tiffy, I'll be waiting for Cid outside the city's border. Tell him to be silent."

Before Tifa could ask her what all the secrecy was about Yuffie hung up and erased the call log from the phone. She entered the room again and extended her hand towards Wren who took the phone from her.

"Zuthey isn't home, so I'll go sleep with my cats." She said referring to her friend. "And I want to be alone."

Although Wren didn't agreed with Yuffie being alone while someone had just murdered her father, he could tell from her eyes that she really wished she just could be alone.

"Very well, princess."

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_**Thank you very much for reading!**_

_**I am sorry for any punctuation or grammar errors, I wrote this between three and five in the morning, so I'm really sleepy and might not notice them myself!**_

**_Please_**_** review on what you think and thank you if you do!**_


	3. Chapter 2

_**Update! Thank you very much for reading!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything form the world of Final Fantasy, these are all owned by Square Enix**_

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**Chapter 2**

With a quick flick of his lighter, Cid turned on his cigarette, he didn't know it'd be that damn cold in Wutai and hoped that whatever the brat had called them for was a good reason. He was freezing his ass off and he really wasn't fond of that. Making a cloud partly with his own breath and partly with his cigarette smoke he decided to turn off the lights of tiny bronco and waited silently like Tifa had told him to be. It wasn't his favorite job in the world to go around picking up people just because, but either way he loved flying so it didn't exactly bothered him either.

"Damn, it's f*king cold here." He muttered to himself while rubbing his hands against his upper arms and remembering they still had to fly all the way back to Edge. Morning was approaching, though and hopefully the sun will offer some warmth. If there was sun to begin with.

The wind picked up harshly almost sending him tumbling forwards and falling in the snow. He cursed loudly raising his fist at the sky while wondering why in the hell he had fallen for Tifa's puppy dog eyes. The weather was terrible to be flying, he had risked his neck for a brat that wasn't even waiting to begin with and he had a feeling his hair was getting frozen and staying that way till the end of the year. He grabbed his cigarette again and lit it up once more praying that this time it wouldn't fall to the snow.

A shadow appeared by the corner of his eye and his hands gripped the cold metal of his spear ready for any wolf or other animal to pounce at him, but when the figure jumped he realized it was Yuffie carrying a large bag in her back.

"Damn it Yuffs! I almost stabbed you!" He said harshly before placing his spear back in the side of tiny bronco. He didn't even noticed how the word stab made Yuffie jump in her place.

"Hey old man, nice seeing you too." She said with a wave knowing he probably couldn't see she wasn't exactly smiling, she had fixed her face enough for it to be hard to tell she still looked like crap, at least it was still dark outside and she didn't have to worry about it for another two hours.

Yuffie didn't wanted anyone knowing about her being _that _devastated, she would tell them, eventually, actually the news would be out and about by their own as soon as the sun rose and the news began to air at six. Her life was never private, and if she wanted to leave Wutai before it was flooding with cameramen she needed to do it fast, hence, Cid was there waiting for her to put her bag in the right place of the plane.

"So why are ya leaving your house again, brat?" Cid asked as he boarded the plane while looking up at the sky and hoping it would clear out soon or they'd have to stop for a while. It was nasty outside and he had barely made it in one piece.

Yuffie, still precautious about telling him too much shrugged, as if trying to get in a character that she clearly did not belonged at the moment. She laughed almost sarcastically thinking of something she would surely say in any other occasion.

"Oh, you know, family problems and stuff." She was content with her voice, at least she didn't sounded like she was about to crack as some fine piece of pottery that belonged behind a glass of security, something her guards and policemen would try to do as soon as the sun rose. She wasn't about to stay under locked door, she needed to go out and find that bastard to make sure he paid for what he did.

"Your pops giving you hell again?" Cid asked easily as he walked to the front of the plane and with a swift movement started the engine of the plane before jumping on and boarding it.

Yuffie did her best to laugh.

"Yeah."

xxxx

The minutes ticked slow as Tifa passed her small rag across the countertop of the bar. Outside the door was marked with the "CLOSED" sign which prevented some drunkards to come inside. Cloud dusted off his hands against his apron before undoing the two loose strands of material behind his back and folding it against his arm.

"Still worried about Yuffie?" He asked walking towards Tifa, she had been cleaning the exact same spot in the bar for the past fifteen minutes and he could clearly see her reflection against the cool metal against it.

He hated seeing her so worked up about something, after Yuffie had called she had suddenly lost the little spark in her eyes that often made him feel alive as well. When she worried his world seemed slightly grayer than usual, he didn't wanted to see her that way, something that made him wonder exactly what was going on with Yuffie too.

"It's just…" Tifa trailed off finally stopping the constant rubbing of the material against the bar. Her eyes flickered towards Cloud, trying to understand what had happened hours ago. ", the last time I ever saw Yuffie cry… was when Aerith died."

She had said the words, those words they usually refused to say out loud, although this didn't took a great toll on him anymore, Aerith had forgiven him after all, and he didn't feel as culpable as before. Actually he was focusing in the simple things of life, taking care of his stepson and, well, seeing if Tifa would finally get the hints or if he would soon have to try a more direct approach.

Pondering over the comment Tifa had made, he had to accept that seeing, or hearing for that instance, Yuffie cry was rare; maybe as rare as seeing Vincent cry himself, just that in opposite ways. Yuffie was just too proud and happy to actually break down easily, and to tell the truth he doubted that it was only because of a bad cold.

"Maybe she just wants to escape the snow." Barret suddenly appeared in the bar coming from the second floor, just after tucking Marlene into bed and patting Denzel in the head. The kids were growing fine, and rapidly, he was surprised at how tall Denzel had gotten in the last weeks, actually, he almost reached his elbow and that was a great accomplishments.

He had heard the whole conversation of Tifa and Yuffie, in fact, the whole team had been there, even Vince and Red; both of them which had gone to look for dinner after Cloud asked them to. The weather was getting pretty cold even in Edge, and he knew that the only probably warm place in Gaia at the moment was the Gold saucer and Costa del Sol. Maybe this was an exaggeration, but as far as he knew this was the worst winter he had seen since he was eight. Taking into account that Yuffie hated winter then it wouldn't be surprising that she really wanted to leave Wutai at the moment.

"I don't know." Tifa muttered while grabbing both of her elbows. "It just doesn't feel right."

The persons in the room stood silent for some seconds, until the door opened and the bell rang as Vincent strode in with Nanaki following him. In one of his hands he was holding a carryout bag while the other one held the keys Tifa had provided to him for easier entrance of the house.

"We're back." Nanaki announced walking towards the three adults his fiery tail moving behind him.

"That's great, was everything okay?" Tifa asked with a smile before turning on her heel and walking towards the back kitchen in order to gather plates and cups. She returned to the bar and walked to the restaurant part of it where the boys had started to open the food. Barret especially hungry since he had driven all the way to the bar to see Marlene, the industry was going great, he almost had sufficient money to get his dream house and he knew his daughter would love it too.

Cid had been in town that week and Vincent had happened to join him after Cid stopped in Nibleheim to bring some gifts for Cloud and Tifa. Red had also accompanied them after Cid mentioned that they might as well since it seemed like he was picking up everyone in the way. Yuffie had probably been the only person that hadn't been accidentally brought to the Seventh Heaven that week.

"Everything was okay." Vincent mentioned, answering Tifa's earlier question. She had seen an improvement on him, and as in improvement she rationalized that he was more active with the group, of course as active as passive and stoic looking Vincent could get, but he did spoke more and not only for serious businesses, and she was glad of this,

They sat and started partaking form the food positioned in the middle of the table. Tifa knew Cid wouldn't take long on getting Yuffie back, he was the fastest pilot in Gaia, although the storm had been harsh and the winds were cold. She was just worried that whatever had happened was far worse than what everyone thought it could be.

xxxx

The red sun died against the horizon, clouds moved it and the blue darkness came to bring forth the night. The cold wind blew against the metals houses of Edge as a pair of keys clattered against the lock of the Seventh Heaven bar. The eyes of Vincent and Cloud moved towards the door as it opened revealing Cid and Yuffie. Both of them had a light cover of snow on top of their heads, but neither of them commented on this as they entered. Yuffie carried a great bag behind her back and Cid mumbled curses under his breath as he made his way towards the bar where the two other men were.

"Hey guys!" Yuffie said with a bright smile and a wave of her hand. She had been right about calming herself down before getting to Edge, and she had been able to do it. It was a great feeling to be away from her home and still been at home. AVALANCHE was her second and maybe closest family, and now it was her only family. She reckoned that it was going to be a bad idea to tell them whatever had happened, but deep inside she knew she would have to tell them before any other medium would.

"Yuffie." Cloud acknowledged his younger friend. "How was the trip?"

"Cold as hell." Cid mumbled as he withdrew a beer from Tifa's freezer knowing she wouldn't mind.

"Great." Yuffie contradicted the older blonde. "A little boring, you know, white everywhere except in the desert, but good. Did you guys miss me?"

At the moment she wanted to avoid that fateful question that would lead to the explanation that she was still not sure how to explain, all she knew was that she was tired, not having slept and eaten. She needed to come up with something, but all her mind would go to was images of roasted beef and a nice warm bed.

Cloud smiled, maybe Tifa had been over reacting a bit, and maybe he had too. Something had told him that the ninja was really not okay, but seeing her grin while she let the bag fall to the floor and stretch her arms out it made him think that nothing could be wrong with her. She was the same Yuffie as before.

"Yeah." He said to her. Tifa was upstairs taking a warm bath after a long day of work, so he thought he'd be cleaning up the rest of the bar for her, and Vincent had come downstairs to talk with him. "Are you guys hungry?"

"I could eat a cow." Cid said while sipping from his beer.

"Gawd, me too." Yuffie mentioned wile patting her stomach and walking towards the bar as well. Cloud nodded and disappeared into the kitchen where he hoped to find the food left over for his two friends which everyone knew would arrive late. "So did you miss me, Vince?"

The question was awkward for her, she knew she had feelings for the gunman ever since the deepground incident, and if she spoke honestly to herself she knew those feelings were still alive within her, but even with all the opportunities she had had before to confess to him the fear of being turned away and ignored kept her words at bay. Everyone always considered her to be bold and not having much of a word filter, but there were certain topics and persons that she could simply not talk about.

Vincent in the other hand also knew that the ninja held a special place in his heart, if he had one, that is. He had long ago come in terms with that and after a long talk with himself he decided to keep them hidden. Not only because he considered himself a monster, one blessed with the friendships of his comrades, but also because he simply did not knew how to react to the lingering feelings of attraction for the younger woman, he hadn't felt feelings like that in a long time and to tell the truth he was slightly afraid of what these could do.

So both stayed silent, not wanting to tell each other for different reasons of their own, making the question Yuffie had just asked slightly harder on him than it had been to Cloud.

"The house is livelier with you." He settled with that, and even Cid would agree with this, the only person besides the kids that could make a conversation burst out of nowhere was Yuffie, she made awkward silences and other situations more bearable.

Yuffie smiled at the man in black, at least he hadn't just nodded at her like he used to do a lot before. She hoped to keep being the lively of the group, even when her heart was mourning.

Cloud returned with two plates filled with food, he settled them in front of his two friends, and both of them (for the lack of a better word) dug in. Yuffie hadn't eaten anything since the lunch she had had with her dad the day before, and it had been so filling she had gone to bed without eating. Cid had simply been too occupied with the machinery in his plane and other smaller jobs like getting souvenirs for Shera and his other friends to eat something in the way; so both of them were extremely hungry, and very extremely happy to see the sizzling meat and other piquant food in front of them.

"Would you like a drink, Yuffie?" Cloud asked since he knew Cid would be okay with his beer, maybe ask for another one, but not anything different from the one he hand in his hands at the moment.

"I guess I can't ask for a strong whiskey in the rocks, right?" She questioned with a smile, to which Cloud responded with what Yuffie liked to call 'The look'. "Fine, I'll just have a cola."

Nodding the blonde walked to the freezer and took out a cola flavored soda before setting it up on the bar and giving it to Yuffie.

"So how have you guys been?" Yuffie asked while making circles with her fork. "Have you and Tifa hooked up yet?"

Cloud give Yuffie the look one more time, but this time he turned down as if to wipe the lower shelf, when he really was hiding the light blush that had spread all over his face. Not even Cid would dare ask something like that without fear of being cut into smaller pieces, but that's what Yuffie was known for, her sharp tongue and hands. She could get anyone's secrets as fast as she could steal people's money.

Cid suppressed a laugh by coughing and Vincent merely looked away wondering how the blonde would respond to such a direct question. He knew that Cloud and Tifa were not in a relationship, it was a matter of studying their movements and the way they talked, but the gunman could read his companion like a book. They in fact were almost as if one could say very close friends, they had many things in common, so when it came to speaking to one another Cloud had mentioned some things about Tifa that Vincent knew were unmistakable signs of love.

He theorized that the only complication between the two fighters was the fact that Tifa still believed Cloud had feelings for their lost comrade Aerith, and that Tifa didn't wanted to feel like his second choice.

"You arrived!" Tifa said happily when she saw the back of Yuffie and Cid in her stools. She made her way hastily towards her friend and wrapped her arms around Yuffie when the younger ninja did so too after she jumped off her chair and hugged her.

It had almost been six months since she had seen Yuffie, of course there had been phone calls and some letters, but it wasn't easy when your best friend was a major political figure in the other side of the world.

"Sorry for worrying you, Tiffs." Yuffie mentioned while patting her friend in the back.

Cloud decided to turn on the TV to make sure there was something besides the clattering of the forks against the glass of the plates. He flipped through the channels mindlessly as Cid and Vincent kept talking as so did Tifa and Yuffie, the later one telling her about some festival in Wutai some months ago and how her kimono had looked. Barret and Red were telling the kids a story before they went to sleep and the night outside seemed as harmless as a baby chocobo, there was a peace in the air that made Yuffie feel better.

Or so it was until the musical theme of the world news began playing in the random channel Cloud had decided to leave the TV on. Either way he liked being informed about what was going on in the world.

_Channel twenty news, the world's informer. _The TV channel announced as the small ushered voices spoke through the night. Cloud's mako eyes scanned the plasma TV every once in a while, although this one had gone into some commercials and there was nothing exactly exiting about it. He turned his head to something Vincent asked him just as Barret and Red descended the stairs.

Yuffie knew she'd have to say it soon, she had avoided already three questions of why was it that she had wanted for Cid to pick her up at four in the morning in Wutainese time, and she had been able to dodge it pretty well, but the lingering gaze of everyone when they asked her about it made her nervous, especially when Vincent turned to hear better the conversation. Barret got closer and sat next to Cid, Cloud and Tifa were in the other side of the bar and Vincent was right next to her, Red settled behind them and in the floor moving his tail to an unheard beat.

To tell the truth, Vincent didn't believed that she had just hated the cold in Wutai so much that she had wanted to leave. It was certainly a random event like the one's Yuffie loved to do; however it simply didn't felt right. He could almost see through her façade and know that this wasn't the usual Yuffie he had befriended from almost five years ago, it was almost in the air around them, that poisonous silence and awkwardness radiation from her. He almost wanted to ask her directly, he wanted her to tell them the truth, but then again, this would be out of character from him to do, and the last thing he wanted to do was to explain to her that he was, in fact, worried for her, and maybe just as Tifa had been.

Not wanting to come to terms with his own feelings once again, he reassured himself that he was over-thinking and pushed them to the back of his mind, letting them linger in the darkness as always.

"Okay… I guess I'll just say it…." Yuffie began, she wasn't sure if it was the right moment, she didn't even knew if she was ready to say it herself, but all her friends were there, except for Cait, but Reeve probably already knew either way. She opened her mouth to begin her big explanation just when the theme of the news began again and a woman in a red suit that didn't went well with her purple shirt under it began talking.

"For breaking news tonight, Godo Kisaragi, Emperor of Wutai has been assassinated by an unknown individual. His daughter, Princess Yuffie Kisaragi has gone missing just some hours after she found the body of her father. Emperor Godo was stabbed multiple times in the abdomen and chest area, leading to his death. The blizzard that has fallen on the western countries has erased any footprints, and there is not sign of a murder weapon." The woman said as the room dead silent. Everyone, except for Yuffie seemed to share surprised eyes as they looked with shock at the TV. "Mark Walters has more to report, Mark?"

The image changed to the one of a reporter standing just outside the palace in Wutai, soldiers guarding the door, while other press members continued to swarm around Yuffie's house taking pictures. It seemed like the sky was clear, but the snow covered everything that was visible.

"Hello, Nancy, we are at the Wutai royal palace, just some meters away from the study that was apparently trashed last night, here in Wutai. It's been barely six hours since the incident happened, but the princess is nowhere to be seen." The blonde, green-eyed reporter then turned to Wren, and that's when Yuffie knew everything was going to go out of the window. "Officer, Wren, could you tell us more about what happened."

"I'm sorry, at the moment it is confidential." Wren said as he tried to pass through the multitude of cameramen and reporters.

"What about princess Yuffie and her disappearance? Do you believe she ran away, or that someone might have kidnapped her?" The reporter pressed on following Wren.

Yuffie clenched her hand around a fork, when Wren turned to the screen and directed himself to the people of Gaia.

"Princess Yuffie has just gone through a traumatizing experience, her father, his majesty Godo died in her hands. Yuffie might be in shock, she might not know what she's doing, we ask of whoever might have seen her to report to us. She is in fragil—" Wren was interrupted when a fork got slammed against the TV and successfully hit the power button turning the TV off. Everyone's eyes fell of Yuffie from her place kneeling on top of the stool and with her hand high in the air just when she had sent the fork flying to the machine.

"I'm not fragile!" She yelled at the square box. She sighed and fell back on the stool sitting correctly before looking up at her friends and cracking a small smile. "I guess the cat is out of the bag."

* * *

_**A big thanks to CupofTeaforAliceandHatter and a Guest for recommending me to do it in Third POV, I'm liking it so far, and it is true that it's a little more detailed :)**_

_**Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it! :D**_


	4. Chapter 3

_**Slightly early update since I had time between classes and I wanted to get to the next chapters quickly, hahaha**_

_**Thank you for reading!**_

_**I do not won anything or anyone from Final fantasy VII**_

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Yuffie had a feeling of déjà vu growing deep in her mind as she stared at Cloud and the others across the table in the Seventh Heaven. She fidgeted with her hands as the silence grew thicker in the atmosphere. She had explain what she needed to explain, not going to the extreme details just like with Wren, she just wanted them to know what had happened, not what she felt, and she had always been pretty good at that.

Cloud looked thoughtfully at the table with his chin resting against his locked hands. Barret and Tifa stood behind him, not wanting to sit down while they heard Yuffie's story; Cid had gone out to smoke because he had said he needed one, but in reality he felt bad for not realizing why the heck the brat had been so quiet during the trip, usually she didn't leave him alone at all, so he had discarded it to be nausea.

Vincent stood in the other side of the bar, as far as possible while analyzing the ninja, wondering what was going through her head, and if she was really okay, knowing that even though Yuffie's relationship wasn't the best with Godo she had loved her father, it could be seen through their competitiveness, she might had called him many things, but Vincent knew it was her way of showing affection towards him. He could also see the faint red circles under her eyes that although she had tried to fix them were still pretty visible for Cloud and his eyes.

Cloud also knew this wouldn't be easy, knowing her and the way she was so quiet about it, he theorized that she wouldn't want them to talk to the police, but if he didn't talked to them and for some reason the Wutainese found out she was with them they would become prime suspects even if they were heroes of the world. His mako eyes scanned the face of his friend once more, the circles, and the extremely blurry line in her cheek that was probably a smudge of blood that had been scrubbed over and over when she took a shower before meeting Cid. She seemed pretty normal, holding her sarcasm and happy attitude but was lacking the humor in her lines, as if she was just trying to act it out.

"Were you able to identify who that shadow might be?" The blonde asked raising his head to look at the ninja straight in her eyes.

Yuffie sighed if there was a reason why she had looked for her friends was in hopes to not have to answer many questions, but Cloud began to seem worse than Wren, he loved details, besides he had gotten more than good at finding things out and often helped Reeve once in a while as a side job from the delivery. And she was the gathering of information head there, so she knew how to handle this things well, she knew she had to answer the questions in order to give the guys a better view on what had happened.

"No, I mean I could have looked for him, or her, but if I had then maybe I'd be dead and rotting too." She merely mumbled the last part.

Cloud sighed, he'd like more information, but at the same time he didn't wanted to dig too deep, besides Tifa had already laid a hand on his shoulder meaning she had seen something that he probably had missed and the last thing he wanted at the moment was to make Yuffie feel uncomfortable.

"Right, well, it seems like no one knows you're here," He said while getting up, the clock already marked one thirty in the morning, and Yuffie wasn't oblivious to the fact that it had been around this time in Wutainese time that the whole murder case happened. Her skin crawling as she remembered how she had been awake almost in another dimension, it was really an alien feeling to her. "I don't think you want anyone to know, right?"

"You're thinking right, spike," She said jumping off her seat and stretching. "Look guys, all I'm asking is—"

"To find the bastard." Cid said as he entered the bar once again making sure he locked the door after him.

"But isn't the police looking for him already?" Tifa asked stepping next to Cloud, Yuffie shrugged at this.

"Yeah, but that also means that they were going to lock me up as soon as they saw me in the morning, and I'm not someone that gets locked up. I want to take action."

Tifa understood her friend, after all she would have done the same, but there was a difference that she knew she couldn't ignore, Yuffie was a princess, the hair to the throne for Wutai. The sole heir for that matter, now that Godo had stepped up his plan and restored Wutai's honor converting it once again into a nation and not a tourist attraction it had become a major political influence, surely someone had a plan to bring it down once again. Meaning that her best friend was in danger wherever she was.

"Hey guys, I know this is important and all, but I'm exhausted." Yuffie said with a yawn. "Can we keep talking about it tomorrow while we eat?"

Although Cloud wanted to tell her this wasn't a matter to discuss over eggs and bacon he knew that they all needed rest ,so he simply nodded and she small group broke, Tifa and Yuffie disappearing in the staircases where the earlier one was going to show Yuffie her room. He was glad the building was large enough to house everyone, even when Barret, Cid, and Red had to sleep in one room and the two remaining were for Yuffie and Vincent.

He sighed and sat down on a stool making maps and connections in his mind of who this killer might have been and why they would try to murder Godo.

"Who would want Wutai out?" He muttered more to himself than to anyone that could have lingered in the bar with him, and to his surprise Vincent sat next to him.

"Who wouldn't?" Vincent said while crossing his arms over his chest. "The rise of the Wutai nation once more can only mean competition to the others, beginning with Edge." Vincent tilted his head a bit, to where he had a better view of a sign just outside the Seventh heaven bar with the face of a man running for president of the region. Edge was expanding fast and extremely resembling Midgar with each day. "The higher the power the easier it is to control the other countries, and their people."

"This person probably knows Yuffie's youth and character." Cloud mentioned looking at the same poster, it didn't mean that this Omar Walters was the culprit, but they imagined him as a candidate for it. "He might have deducted that someone like her wouldn't be able to rule correctly and Wutai would fade in the background…"

"Or he might want to get rid of her too, so the country is easier to conquer in case it needs to be." Vincent added and the two men looked at each other.

"That means that no matter how we look at it that person probably wants Yuffie dead." Cloud said before looking out of the window. "And that if they were still lingering in the woods they could have been planning on getting to her."

"But she found them first." Vincent looked thoughtfully at the floor. Yuffie was probably unaware in the danger she was at the moment, or maybe she did knew and she didn't cared, in fact it really wouldn't surprise him if she didn't cared.

_You are worried. _A dark voice whispered inside of him and he closed his eyes to keep Chao's voice away from his conscious mind. With the protomateria he had been able to control him, actually he could go days, even weeks without hearing him, but sometimes (like that night) he had got careless and lowered the barrier he had within himself.

He didn't have to listen to his darker side either way, he knew it too, but then again he was a stubborn individual, as cool and calm as he looked. Yes, he was worried, as a friend, a friend that knew Yuffie was a trained ninja that had been excellent in battle and did not needed to be taken care of like a child. She wasn't fragile and small, well, maybe she was small, but certainly she wasn't fragile, just like she had said earlier. Yuffie didn't needed a bodyguard, and he found it ironic that he had even thought of that for a fraction of a second. His feelings acting before him again when it came to her, and he hoped he could control that, since he was not a person of impulse, he needed to think everything through.

Not too differently from Vincent Cloud exhaled and decided to ask his friend about what was lingering in his mind.

"Changing the subject for a bit," He began, Cloud always thought Vincent was good with advice, although he didn't know how good he might be with the one he was about to inquire from him. "Do you think Tifa isn't looking for something serious at the moment?"

Vincent almost rose a brow for his friend, if anything he thought Tifa would love to be in a serious relationship with Cloud, but he went back to the theory of her not wanting to be the second choice Cloud had. He smiled a bit under his cloak as he turned up to the fan.

"I believe that you need to make your feelings clear to her and ask her that question yourself after you have." The gunman said to him. Cloud thought about the advice for a moment, this night was surely not the right time to express himself, besides he was tired and still needed to take a shower.

"Have you tried that before?" The blonde asked as he straightened up and got up from the stool. Vincent thought of his past love, it was impossible, he could have never openly said it to her.

"In the past, no." He admitted while following Cloud upstairs and turning the lights of the bar off as they went that way. Cloud stopped in a step and looked back to Vincent, it wasn't that hearing he had never done it in the past surprised him, but that he specifically said _in the past, _instead of simply saying he hadn't. He almost felt like they both had had a conversation like that before, with different circumstances.

_Could it be he's interested in someone? _Cloud wondered to himself before continuing to walk up the staircase, it shouldn't be shocking for him, since he knew how deep Vincent's feelings had been for the scientist Lucecia , so why was he slightly taken aback at the fact that he hadn't noticed that before? Or maybe he was just stating that he might change in the future and wasn't interested in anyone at the moment.

And yet again, it all might be a misconception in his mind.

Cloud settled for the last explanation as he bid Vincent goodnight and entered his room, wondering just how in the world he would be able to confess what he felt for his dear friend.

xxxx

Yuffie's eyes opened in a snap as she lunged her body forward and grasped the front of her shirt in order to breathe better. Her breathing was ragged and her eyes blurry, shivers ran through her body as she looked around in the guest room and realized it had been just a dream, but the vivid image of her nightmare still fresh in her mind. She had seen her father cold in the ground as a shadow stabbed him over and over, and she hadn't been able to do anything against about it, only scream as the snow kept falling around them.

_Not too different from reality. _She thought to herself as she got up and walked out of her room, it had been a while since she had a nightmare, but it didn't exactly surprised her that she was having some of them at the moment. In reality she was holding up pretty good, a lot better compared to the previous night, but she still needed to give herself some time. The bathroom was occupied to her dismay as she knocked at the door at least five times.

"I need to pee!" She screamed making sure that the whole house knew she was going to take power of the bathroom as soon as the person that was inside, well… was outside.

Just as if she had spoken the magic words the door opened and a shirtless Vincent stepped out. The color went to her cheeks as she realized what she had screamed at him across the thin door. He changed the whole scenario, not like she exactly minded seeing him half naked, although this did made her more uncomfortable.

"Whoa there, Vince, you became a flasher now?" She said trying to sound funny, but in reality being embarrassed and cautious that he would notice her blush as she pretended to look away from him.

"It sounded like you were in a hurry." He defended himself as he (although he would never admit it even under extreme torture) enjoyed the mixed expressions that crossed the ninja's face. It was so easy to take different expressions from her, yet hard to know what she really felt.

"I-I yeah, yeah, I am." She repeated herself to maybe make a point across as she scurried besides him and closed the door before sliding down against it when she heard him walk away. She covered her hot cheeks as she remembered his ruby stare on her. _I wish I could take a picture of him like that. _Yuffie thought as a goofy smile spread through her lips, but this one fell when she remembered she shouldn't be thinking about her crush on Vincent Valentine when her dad was still in the morgue of Wutai.

Sighing she got up from her place in the floor and walked into the shower.

Vincent entered his room and threw his clothes in the bed before taking his shirt and putting it on. It had been indiscreet of him to walk outside like that, he had to admit he could have ignored the ninja and simply taken his time while dressing completely. _Disrespectful_, a part of him thought, and yet another part of him didn't regret it. He shook his head once again, it seemed like all those months in which he had convinced himself that he didn't felt anything for her had come crashing down in some mere hours.

He passed his cloak over his shoulders and placed his bandana on his hair. He wanted to speak to her, not about his feelings (good grief he wasn't planning on doing that at all), but about her, he wanted to make sure she wasn't broken to the point of no repair, after all he knew what it was to be left completely alone in the world, with no childhood friends or colleagues, he had been like that for a very long time, and was worrie—

_Concerned as a friend. _He corrected himself. He was concerned this would have a negative impact in Yuffie.

Cloud broke another egg into the pan as Tifa beaded the pancake mix in a bowl.

"Mom can I have two?" Denzel's voice rose from behind her, she looked back at the boy with copper hair and smiled at him, lately he had started calling her mom and dad to Cloud, but at the same time this surprised her it made her feel good too, she was happy that he trusted them enough and liked them enough to call them that way. She already considered him her son, in fact he was her stepson and she saw no difference.

"Me too!" Marlene said excitedly.

"Alright." Tifa agreed while she poured the mixture in a pan.

"I want five." Barret mumbled while chewing on some bacon that he had fried himself and was supposed to be passing amongst the people that were awake and in the table.

"You're going to get fat." Cid replied to him while reading the paper with Nanaki by his feet.

"Shut the hell up you foo, or I won't give ya food." Barret said while moving his steel arm in the air as a fist.

"Daddy, language!" Marlene warned and Barret looked as surprised as her.

"Sorry cupcake!" He apologized remembering the no-cursing policy, which he only followed when Marlene was around.

"That's right." Cid laughed as Barret shot him a look of hatred.

"Breakfast!" Yuffie shouted while jumping two steps at the time, not knowing Vincent was walking slowly behind her and took double the time it took her to get to the kitchen area and smell the food getting cooked. Cloud had already begun to give everyone their part of eggs in their plates.

"Morning." Cloud and Tifa said in unison as both the ninja and the gunman came into view.

"Good morning." Yuffie said as she took a place in front of Cid, leaving a spot besides her where Barret sat as Tifa passed the pancakes. Vincent sat next to the older blonde and Cloud and Tifa took their seat across from each other and next to Vincent and Yuffie in the table. The kids were in the ends of the long table and almost resembled the heads of a family.

"Yuffie." Marlene called looking at yet another one of her heroes.

"Sup, little one?" Yuffie said smiling and looking at the young girl that somehow reminded her a lot of Aerith.

"I'm sorry about your dad." The youngest brunette said and everything, even Cid, stopped for a second. The eyes of the smaller girl seemed apologetic. "I saw the news this morning, and I don't know what I would do without my daddy."

That comment actually reached Yuffie deeper than what she thought it would as she remembered that Marlene too had no mom, she only had Barret in her life, and almost ironically she knew that if something happened to her dad the smaller girl would stay with Tifa and Cloud which were almost her second parents. Tifa turned to Yuffie who hadn't answer and actually still looked deep in thought, she cleared her throat ready to change the subject when the ninja spoke.

"It's okay." She smiled brightly to Marlene. "I'm strong," She showed her arms and flexed them just in case the speech assurance had been enough. "And so is your dad, just look at him! He's practically made out of muscle! Nothing would happen to him, so don't be scared. And like I said just right now, I'm strong, I'll be fine."

Her friends glanced at her and then at Marlene who seemed contempt with her answer and kept eating. Cloud and Vincent exchanged a quick glance before the earlier one cleared his throat.

"Denzel, Marlene, we grownups need to do something today, do you guys want to go play with Susan and Mike?" He asked referring to the kids that attended to school with them and lived just two streets away.

Denzel was just finishing his food as he nodded to his dad.

"Sure, I mean I don't mind." He mentioned while shrugging as Marlene gave a glance at Barret.

"May I?" She asked for his permission.

"Of course you can." He said with a smile, although in the inside he wanted to ask 'who the hell is this Mike?' to Cloud.

"Can we go right now?" Denzel wondered looking at Tifa this time. Tifa smiled, the kids were used to going to their houses friends early in the morning either way so she didn't thought ten in the morning would be a problem.

"If you guys knock and tell Mrs. Robinson that you're planning to stay for the whole day." She explained to what the kids nodded eagerly.

"I called her a while ago either way, so they are expecting you.

"Put on a coat both of you!" Barret called when the two kids ran out of the kitchen and swiftly made heir way upstairs to look for something to wear.

Once the doors closed in the upper floor everyone, except for Nanaki and Vincent sighed. Yuffie poured more syrup in her pancakes, eggs, and bacon. She smiled and looked at Tifa.

"So, I have this feeling inside of me that tells me you guys aren't telling me something, a and if you think about it I told you guys everything last night, so you guys need to spit it before … before I steals from everyone's pocket." She thought her threat should be enough as it seemed everyone reached to see if their wallets were still where they were stopped to be.

"You're in danger." Tifa said when no one seemed to take the initiative.

"And the sun is yellow, so what?" Yuffie asked looking around the table. "Don't tell me you guys are planning on snitching me out."

"We aren't." Cloud assured her before she could look for a door to run out of. "We are just saying there's someone out there who wants you dead, Yuffie."

"Someone has want me dead since the whole meteor thing, the person just changed." Yuffie shrugged. She didn't cared, most of her life she had learned not to trust and watch out for anything, so it really didn't surprised her that someone would want a princess dead, so that's why she had been trained to fend for her own. It was a thing in Wutai, honor was the greatest thing, and of course safety too, so she had learned everything she could.

"Then I guess the answer is easy, right?" Cloud said while placing his fork down in his empty plate.

"The hell you talking about, Blondie?" Cid asked while sipping from his hot coffee, which was becoming less hot and more tasteless.

Vincent looked at Cloud, his crimson eyes waiting for Cloud to talk about the plan they both had come up with, but would be risky, as any other plan they had ever made before. His eyes traveled back to the ninja then, knowing she would accept either way, but maybe Tifa wouldn't.

"We'll use you as a bait." Cloud said and a smile began to appear in Yuffie's lips. "If he really wants you dead then he's going to look for you."

Tifa gave Cloud a warning look as if wondering if he was being serious, and really hoping that he was not.

"Now that's what I'm talking about." Yuffie said happily while rubbing her hands together. Catching the murder might be fun in the end.

* * *

_**So, I really hope Vince doesn't seem too out of character, since they already like each other and all, and well... yeah, if you hoped for them to go slower as in he doesn't know his own feelings then I'm sorry about that hahaha, I have another fic where they take their sweet little time and I wanted to write one like this where they already know their feelings without it having to be a one shot.**_

_**Anyways, long explanation short, I hope Vince doesn't seem out of character too much. **_

_**Thank you for reading, again!**_


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